What To Know About Guitar Tone

Besides the looks & glamor, you want your guitar to sound great!

Pretend for a second you're a god. Rock n' roll god. Wielding a guitar like a triton.

Tone is that lightning bolt that's coming out. Streaking through the clouds, cutting the atmosphere in half. Shaking the earth.

It's going to be tone that sets everything apart. The purr from the roar - whimper from the wail. Remember: lightning bolt!

You get it. Tone's important.

Let's break it down and get you rocking harder, booming louder and bobbing your audience's heads faster!

Clean & Rich: Why Good Tone Is Like The Upper West Side

There's a goal for tone. Electric or Acoustic, it doesn't matter, you still wanna go for it.

Clean and Rich.

Say it with me. Clean and Rich.

What does that mean?

It means clear. It means solid. It means no rickety noises coming from the abyss of an amplifier.

You want this. You need this. You can't roll into a gig with junk sounds coming with from instrument. Right?

When you begin with an electric guitar and an amp, make sure you play without any effects. Effects can sometimes hide nasty distortions or junk sounds, and you want to make sure your guitar is without them.

Once you know you can get "clean" sounds, then you can play with the effects.

So tone is important - we know that already. This means you're gonna have to test your guitar out. Listen close.

So play all the notes you can. Every chord you know. Or think you know. Hell, make a few up. Imagine what Hendrix or Slash might play and try it. OR imagine what Baby Hendrix and Baby Slash might play and try THAT.

Baby Hendrix and baby Slash!

Actually, yeah, do that. Make some funky stuff up. That's a good test, because you'll hear all the awkward sounds you could possibly make.

And if these awkward noises sound dope, you're good to go - get StringNinja (our specially designed program to teach you how to play guitar quickly) and rock out!!

But what you're really looking for are the notes that kill. The notes that floor you. The smooth and rich sound. All we can say that is that you'll know 'em, when ya hear 'em.

Materials Don't Make The Man; But They Do Make The Guitar

So how to track down the notes that kill? Well, you can start with the manufacturing.

Here's a single truth no one can deny: better material makes better sound.

You're going to want the best for your guitar. Right? Who wouldn't.

So take these sage words; make sure your guitar's not made of sticks.

A guitar made from thousands of popsicle sticks...

Of course, guitars don't advertise their components completely - you'll have to investigate. Look it up online, find out what that guitar is made of.

The Avenue To Great Tone

It's a lot to handle. Vague ideas like "clean" and "rich". Learning what your guitar is made of. It ain't easy.

It's things like this that make buying a guitar online so difficult. You won't know the tone. A previous owner may say something like "it plays like a dream", but whose dream?

You'll want to be prepared with all the tools in your arsenal before you go analyzing tone.

Read through our eBook on How To Buy Your First Guitar and get the lowdown on great tone, electric or acoustic. Consider it the thunder that comes before your lightning. Yeah, it can work that way, too - I swear.

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